Comic Review: Enola Holmes, Vol. 2: The Case of the Left-Handed Lady (IDW Publishing)

If you are looking, searching and sleuthing the shops for a Young Adult mystery title, try this new one from IDW: The Case of The Left-Handed Lady. It’s an Enola Holmes Mystery.

The graphic novel’s story is based on the second book in the series of novels by American author Nancy Springer. In it, Sherlock Holmes’s mother is missing, and his younger sister, Enola is in hiding. She’s quite the detective too, another master of disguise.

The story reads well once we have our bearings: London England, during the Victorian era. Enola has been putting on false fronts, using assumed identities, and ‘working the town’ in search of her mother. While the visuals are strongly ‘English’, the dialogue, expressions, and phrases are not. Perhaps Springer sees the absence of retro British dialogue as a way to make Enola Holmes mysteries more easily read.

It’s quite the tale. Many characters, many disguises. Plus, there is a murderer on the loose in old Londontown. Enola has her work cut out for her. So does a first time reader; learning the situation, and the cast. But it’s well worth the effort. At the end of the book, there is a Secret Notebook section, with hand-drawn sketches ‘by Enola’ that clarify the characters, and some other relevant aspects of the story.

Serena Blasco, the French artist who is adapting the novels to graphic format, does a wonderful job in visualizing the Victorian world of Enola. The streets are filled with characters and situations, the rooms are highly decorated, the colours at once both brilliant and subdued. A carefully inviting balance. Blasco’s watercolour style and love of nature both are tremendous assets to this continuing series.

IDW, Enola Holmes Book Two: The Case of The Left-Handed Lady $14.99 for 68 pages of content. Teen